bull

Word family

bull1 /bʊl/ noun

male cow 公牛HBATA [countableC] an adult male animal of the cattle family 公牛

a herd of cows with one bull

一群母牛加一头公牛

2. male animal 雄性动物HBA [countableC] the male of some other large animals such as the elephant or whale 〔象、鲸等大型动物的〕雄性动物

3 take the bull by the horns DEAL WITHto bravely or confidently deal with a difficult, dangerous, or unpleasant problem 挺身面对困难

Nora decided to take the bull by the horns and organize things for herself.

诺拉决定迎难而上，自己来安排事情。

Examples from the Corpus

take the bull by the horns• Helena decided to take the bull by the horns and organize the show herself.• We decided to take the bull by the horns and go to court, instead of paying the fine.

4 nonsense 废话 [uncountableU]UNTRUE informal nonsense or something that is completely untrue 胡说 SYN rubbish

What a load of bull!

真是胡说八道！

5. like a bull in a china shop CLUMSYif you are like a bull in a china shop, you keep knocking things over, dropping things, breaking things etc 笨手笨脚，莽撞冒失

Examples from the Corpus

like a bull in a china shop• Politically, he often behaved like a bull in a china shop.• You're not going to go storming in there like a bull in a china shop again?

6. like a bull at a gate HURRYif you move somewhere like a bull at a gate, you move there very fast, ignoring everything in your way 鲁莽地；凶猛地

Examples from the Corpus

like a bull at a gate• They may fight like a lion or go at something like a bull at a gate.

7. religion 宗教RRC [countableC] an official statement from the Pope 教皇训谕[诏书]

8. centre 中心DSO [countableC] (also bullseye) the centre of a target that you are shooting at 靶心

9. business 商业 [countableC] technicalBFS someone who buys shares because they expect prices to rise 多头；股市看涨的人 → bear → bull market

→ cock and bull story at cock1(4), → like a red rag to a bull at red1(5), → shoot the bull at shoot1(13)

Examples from the Corpus

bull• Myrcan sympathy, like milk from a bull.• I charged in like a bull.• With the right company, certainly the stock should hit new highs with the next bull market.• Put another way, if Karelin were in Pamplona, the bulls would run away from him. 6.• It didn't take Lowell long to realise that the bull hadn't unearthed any pieces of urn.• The bull was under the protection of a court order.

bull2 interjection

UNTRUEused to say that you do not believe or agree with what someone has said 废话，胡说

Bull! Where did you get that idea?

胡扯！你怎么会有那种想法？

Examples from the Corpus

bull• Bull! You could have come if you really wanted to.

From Longman Business Dictionary

bullbull /bʊl/ noun [countableC]FINANCE

1someone who thinks that prices of shares, bonds, currencies, etc are going to rise, and who will therefore keep and buy investments

Bulls predict the Dow Jones will go beyond 13,000.

A growing group of dollar bulls (=people who think the price of the dollar is going to rise) has kept the dollar on a firm footing.

→ compare bear